Photo by Jenny Kirk Ann and Karl Vohs look over unique Danish crafts Saturday, including a spinning Christmas tree.

TYLER — While some people came for the coffee cake and meat, others were more excited about taking a tour of the new facility or dancing around the Christmas tree during the Sharing Christmas Traditions at Danebod event on Saturday in Tyler.

Bill and Diane Clark said that dancing around the Christmas tree was their favorite part of the day.

“I love the dancing around the Christmas tree,” they both said.

Marie Henriksen was interested in purchasing Danish rolled sausage called rullepolse and liver pate called leverpostej.

“It’s rolled and cured,” she said. “I come every year, but I grew up with this stuff. My mother made it.”

Arnie Dam said people nowadays seem to use pork sausage and cream for the pate.

“The pork sausage tends to cover up the liver taste a little bit,” he said.

Henriksen said she lives in Arco, but grew up in the Tyler area.

“I’m 100 percent Danish and I’m actually second generation,” 85-year-old Henriksen said. “My mother was here. In fact, we grew up with Arnie’s family. Our folks were good friends.”

The friendship was a long-lasting one.

“Our dads were friends in Denmark, before they even came to this country,” Dam said.

Dam said he and about a dozen others got together in the folk school basement to make the rullepolse.

“We got the beef flanks from the locker and then we scrape all the fat off of it,” he said. “We get it as nice as we can and then we have people who get the grain going length-wise since it’s so tough. Otherwise, if you went the other way, it might be chewy. When you do it right, it’s so tender.”

After that, the group cleans up and then seasons the meat.

“We put curing salt on it along with Danish spices, onions, bacon, salt and pepper,” Dam said. “The people who do the rolling know how to see the grain. The cooking part is all top secret. They won’t tell us how they do it. But when it’s done, it’s pretty tasty.”

Ann and Karl Vohs were attending the event for the second time.

“Karl’s mom (Mildred Sandager) lived here and was confirmed here at the church,” Ann Vohs said. “She was a full-blooded Dane. The family still celebrates the Danish tradition and dances around the tree and everything.”

Vohs said their daughter, Amelia Vohs, came with them on their first trip from Faribault to Tyler about three years ago.

“Amelia thought her dad was making up a lot of this stuff,” Ann Vohs said. “But she found out he wasn’t. It was very fun. We also met two cousins — ones we didn’t even know — while we were here. We met a cousin on each side. We’ve told all the family and all the cousins now because they all have the same tradition.”

This year, Karl Vohs’ sister, Kolette Stoeckel, was meeting them at Danebod.

“She’s never been here, but she’s coming this year,” Ann Vohs said.

Baked goods, including Danish coffee cake, along with crafts and other items were available to purchase at the event.

“I bought coffee cakes and jellies,” Myrna Rokeh said. “I come every year. I like seeing friends.”

Helen Miller was selling Danish bell pulls at the old-fashioned Danish Christmas.

“It’s basically Danish cross-stitch,” she said. “Unfortunately, it’s getting to be somewhat of a thing of the past.”

Miller said the coffee cakes were one of the most popular items.

“The coffee cakes go really fast,” Miller said. “It’s the same thing every year.”

The Women of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (WELCA) group from Danebod organize the event.

“I’m not Danish, but my (late) husband, Dennis, was,” Jolean Faaborg said. “He was born and raised here, so this is his hometown. His family celebrated a lot of the Danish traditions. As soon as we ate and then did dishes, we’d dance around the Christmas tree.”

Faaborg said proceeds for the event are used throughout the year for several different causes.

“We donate to Hope Harbor in Marshall and our Rock downtown,” she said. “We also do Lake Shetek Ministries. If they’re going somewhere, like a mission trip, we help them.”

A lot of people in attendance also seemed to enjoy the three-meat supper, which consisted of roast pork, meatballs and sausage, along with all the fixings. A large number of attendees also took tours of the new facility on campus.

“The new building was built by donations,” Faaborg said. “We don’t have an elevator at the folk school, so it can be really tough for some people going up and down the steps. The third floor is also not heated.”

Margie Bornhoft said the need for the new building stemmed from the family camps that take place at Danebod every summer.

“There are four generations of people that are coming and the great-grandparents, of course, have trouble doing all the stairs,” Bornhoft said. “All the sleeping rooms over there are on the second and third floor, so the camps came to us about five years ago and asked us, if they could raise the money, would we accept the building.”

Bornhoft said that meant taking responsibility for the ongoing maintenance, insurance and those types of things.

“We took it to the congregation and they voted to accept the building they the money could be raised,” she said. “Over the course of the last five years, the camps and the congregation together have raised the money. We broke ground this spring and here we are today.”

The new building, which hasn’t been named yet, features six large handicapped-accessible rooms with two single beds in each of them. The showers are also handicapped-accessible and there are grab bars and raised toilet seats as well. Several people on the tour commented that they liked the sliding barn doors that separated the bedroom and bathroom for each of the six units.

“This one over here has a view of Swan Lake,” Bornhoft said. “There’s a story about the pastor who founded this congregation. Back in the mid 1800s, H.J. Pedersen he stood over where the church is now and looked out over the prairie and said, ‘This is the place that we’re going to build Danebod,’ even though it wasn’t known as Danebod at that point. He had this vision, and back then, there was a lake out there behind here.”

Bornhoft said Danebod’s history is rich.

“We’ve celebrated over 125 years as a congregation,” she said. “The family camps themselves have been going on since 1946. (The folk school) had fallen into total disrepair and the pastor at that time, Enok Mortensen, said we either have to tear that building down or fix it up. So he got a group of parishioners and they fixed it up.”

Bornhoft said Mortensen then started multiple camps. Today, each of the camps have roughly 150 or more people who attend from all across the country.

“All three of the camps have a little bit different flavor, but they’re all based on the folk school tradition in Denmark, which is lifelong learning,” Bornhoft said. “You’re never too old to learn. There’s a lot of singing and dancing along with conversations and fellowship.”

A fourth camp is for senior citizens only.

“It includes a lot of older Danes who still speak the Danish language,” Bornhoft said. “A lot of them still have roots in the Danish tradition and celebrate that with their families.”

Bornhoft said the campers really pitched in to raise the money for the new building.

“They knew the need and got on board to support this,” she said. “Some of the people who come to this are well into their 90s. One fellow from California is 96 years old. He grew up in Tyler and still comes back.”